The Warlocks: reviews, albums and psychedelic noise on DeBaser

The Profile

The Warlocks are an American neo-psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1998 by singer/guitarist Bobby Hecksher. Known for dense, hypnotic drones, multiple drummers, and organ-smeared textures, they emerged with Rise and Fall and Phoenix and continued with Surgery, Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, The Mirror Explodes, Skull Worship, and Songs From The Pale Eclipse.

Californian psychedelic band noted for two drummers and a keyboardist; heavy, distorted, shoegaze-tinged sound with influences cited by reviewers: Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Spacemen 3, Suicide, Black Sabbath, Radiohead. Albums discussed: Phoenix, Surgery, Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, The Mirror Explodes. Publicly known: formed in Los Angeles in 1998 by Bobby Hecksher; active since.

Reviews paint The Warlocks as a Los Angeles neo-psych outfit dealing in dense, hallucinatory soundscapes and hypnotic rhythms (often with two drummers). Phoenix is praised for heavy, labyrinthine psychedelia; Surgery earns raves for acid whirlpools and melodic haze. Heavy Deavy Skull Lover is a bruising, sincere exorcism; The Mirror Explodes refines the formula with slightly less acid bite but the same foggy allure.

Notable Quotes

❝ Come Save Us opens the CD and is a whirlpool of acid sounds and heavy drums, the claustrophobic voice seasons everything, and when the second guitar comes in, the load gets heavier, and my ears rejoice!

❝ This is something else! A band with two guitarists, a bassist, a lovely girl on keyboards (mostly a '70s organ), a singer, and... two drummers playing simultaneously!!! 100% psychedelic rock.

❝ It's a mountain of distorted and paranoid sound, as if all your worst fears were raising a stunning wall of fuzz-acid sound.

❝ "The Mirror Explodes" should be enjoyed in one breath, because the 8 tracks on the album generate an inexhaustible atmosphere shrouded by a fog created by walls of super distorted guitars and sharp arpeggios; guitars with sudden drops in pressure followed by (two) monotonous and rhythmic drums.